June 12, 2015

Caitlyn Jenner’s transition has included several surgeries and hormone therapies. From a medical perspective, what goes into a gender transition? Cori Agarwal is a board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in both aesthetic and reconstructive surgery at University of Utah Health Care. She works with the transgender community, and this past fall was part of a summit on improving relationships between health care providers and the transgender population. The summit included a variety of sessions, including how to foster an understanding of treating transgender patients in mental health settings; understanding the scope of transgender medical and surgical therapies; preventative care measures; and understanding hormone replacement therapy. She is available to speak on any of these topics. To schedule an interview with Agarwal, contact Julie Kiefer at the U Health Care Department of Public Affairs.
Phone: 801-597-4258 | Email: jkiefer@neuro.utah.edu

June 5, 2015

TLC has pulled its hit series, “19 Kids and Counting,” after one of the show’s stars, Josh Duggar, admitted to molesting several young girls, including his sisters, when he was a teenager. While news of the development involving the conservative Christian family shocked many, the issue of incest in families occurs in many cases but is often not discussed because it’s an uncomfortable topic. Lina Svedin, acting director of the U’s Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy programs, is currently working on a book related to incest and how social taboos regulate behavior. Svedin’s research focuses on incest from a protracted social problem perspective and addresses how taboos as a way to regulate social behaviors work poorly. Her work examines how when such taboos are carried into the policy sphere, they end up creating more damage than good in terms of combatting the problem. She is available to talk about broader issues involving incest and policymaking in the wake of the Duggar case, which has cast a spotlight on a difficult subject.
Phone: 801-581-6781 | Email: lina.svedin@poli-sci.utah.edu